Gaming systems are prevalent in today's computing environments. Game consoles are typically closed systems that only allow signed, or verified, games controlled by hardware vendors to execute on such consoles. This type of development may be called supervisor mode development, in part because the ability to access underlying console resources and the eventual execution of the developed code will undergo a strict verification process to become a signed game. Thus, developers of signed games typically are allowed a certain degree of freedom above that which is given to an ordinary user of the console.
This restriction may be done for various reasons, whether to preserve the business model of having a tightly controlled environment for publishers, where piracy of intellectual property is kept to a minimum, or controlling the types of games that can be played on a gaming system, for instance, to allow content that meets parental expectations for children playing such content. Additionally, allowing only signed code to run helps to control and mitigate the potential for cheating on games in an online community, where certain assumptions, such as community scores or digital currency, are essential to be accurate.
However, these tight restrictions present on game consoles prevent the larger creative community as a whole from developing games or game-like applications on closed game consoles without the need to undergo a verification process. There is a need to allow developers, gamers, general hobbyist, and student game developer communities, among others, to write unsigned games for a traditionally closed system. Additionally, there is a burgeoning market of homebrew developers who spend the time and effort in order to hack game consoles in order to allow the running of unsigned code on such consoles. Without undergoing the verification process, the games developed will be unsigned and not permitted to be operated on a closed console.
To meet this need, restrictions need to be placed on what the unsigned content developers may do. Thus, a managed framework may be used to limit unsigned content developers in a manner unlike the relatively high degree of freedom permitted to developers of signed content. A reduction in content allowed may also reduce the performance of unsigned games, including the graphical response.